The Recipe Cookbook interface is basic but functional, with a selection of search and organizing functions. It comes with over 2,000 recipes from varying sources, and, of course, you can add your own creations to the database using the Recipe Cookbook templates.

The recipes that Recipe Cookbook already stores are a real mix. Some (but not a significant number) are in Norwegian and recipe types range from cocktails and dips to breads and hotpots. Some recipes have notes attached, offering background or hints. You can also add your own notes.

Recipe Cookbook allows you to sort through the recipes by language, country of origin, category and ingredient, and you can modify existing recipes or delete ones you don't like. The program also provides links to a variety of cooking websites and gives you the opportunity to add new sites or modify existing ones. Finally, Recipe Cookbook lets you print and email recipes directly.

Unfortunately, Recipe Cookbook has plenty of faults. The interface is old fashioned, and its search functions, the most attractive feature of the program, are hard to control. Lots of the configuration settings seem to be modifiable, but unfortunately we just couldn't figure out how.

Despite this, Recipe Cookbook has a certain charm. It contains lots of recipes that you would be unlikely to find elsewhere and, even if there is no telling how good they will be, it would be fun to test them out.

Recipe Cookbook is eccentric but interesting cookbook software where the recipes alone merit a second look.

Download Recipe Cookbook 3.0 in Softonic

Recipe software doesn't always have the best reputation - it can be expensive, hard to use and totally user unfriendly. No so with RecipeMaster, a great program for all your recipe organization. It comes with lots of content pre-loaded - including a few Jamie Oliver recipes!

Adding your own recipes to RecipeMaster is easy - there's a form to fill out, or you can import recipes in MealMaster, Compu-Chef and MasterCook format. RecipeMaster only exports in XML, which is a slight pity. Making recipe management even easier is the great search function and excellent measurement conversion tool.

RecipeMaster also has a wine management tool, so you can record your favorite bottles and pair them up with your food. Unfortunately, the Help section isn't complete and the app was very slightly buggy, but all in all, RecipeMaster should be your first stop if you're looking for a free recipe organizer.

RecipeMaster is an excellent piece of recipe management software.

Download RecipeMaster 2.0.2 in Softonic

At first sight Cookbook looks really simple, but it includes all the tools and options you would need in a recipe database. You can organize recipes in categories, create and edit custom menus, export your recipes to various formats and also print them out with several configuration options – which is quite handy, since cooking with the computer beside the saucepan is not a very good idea.

Each recipe in Cookbook includes ingredients, preparation, cooking time and servings. You can also rate them in terms of difficulty and how much you like them, and add a photo as well – though only one.

Cookbook also includes a powerful built-in search tool which lets you easily locate any recipe on your database. If you’re looking for a simple recipe app, this is it.

It may not be the most feature-rich recipe application, but Cookbook works great and includes all the basic tools you need to manage your recipes.

Download Cookbook 1.7.1 in Softonic

Nutrition Facts consists of a large food database that you can browse or search in order to find all the nutritional data available for more than 7,000 types of food. You can enter your query by using general names (chocolate, cookies...) or entering certain brands.

Nutrition Facts’ search results are displayed in real time as you write your query. Simply select the food you're interested in and the nutritional information will be displayed on the right. The one thing we missed, however, was being able to copy, print, save or export the data in some way.

Whether you’re a calorie counter or just interested in eating healthfully, Nutrition Facts is a handy program to have on hand.

Download Nutrition Facts 0.9.4.0 in Softonic

At first sight Cookbook Portable looks really simple, but it includes all the tools and options you would need in a recipe database. You can organize recipes in categories, create and edit custom menus, export your recipes to various formats and also print them out with several configuration options – which is quite handy, since cooking with the computer beside the saucepan is not a very good idea.

Each recipe in Cookbook Portable includes ingredients, preparation, cooking time and servings. You can also rate them in terms of difficulty and how much you like them, and add a photo as well – though only one.

Cookbook Portable also includes a powerful built-in search tool which lets you easily locate any recipe on your database. If you’re looking for a simple recipe app, this is it.

It may not be the most feature-rich recipe application, but Cookbook Portable works great and includes all the basic tools you need to manage your recipes.

Download Cookbook Portable 1.7.1 in Softonic

If you are a person who likes to follow a healthy diet, then you'll know the importance of informing yourself about the nutritional content of your food - an application like Kelpiesoft Food File will allow you to do just this.

Type the food in question into the Kelpiesoft Food File Search box, restrict it to certain categories and the results are displayed in the pane on the right. Presuming Kelpiesoft Food File is accurate, it's a simple, clear way of viewing the nutritional content of your food and is especially useful if you're following a weight-loss diet.

One word of warning: the Kelpiesoft website does not work and it appears that the product is no longer being developed. Some of the food item entries have links to information online that is no longer available as a result and since the Help is also online, you won't be able to use it either.

It's a pity Kelpiesoft Food File is no longer being developed, as it is a useful addition to any healthy person's software collection.

Download Kelpiesoft Food File 1.0.0 in Softonic

As befits a cookbook, iCookbook looks impeccable. All recipes are accompanied by a great high resolution photo, and the search results (search is accessed via the charms bar, which in turn is accessed by mousing over the top right of your screen), look especially good. The search function is further improved by filtering options, and the Stir feature, which lets you "mix up" large groups of search results in the hope of further inspiration.

iCookbook makes following recipes very easy, with the recipe stats, ingredients and preparation instructions laid out in a very clear, informative manner. It's unfortunate, then, that the app doesn't support mouse scrolling or the left and right arrow keys, as we found this to be the most intuitive way to move through recipes.

iCookbook offers other features that will become useful as you use the app over time. There's a My Recipe collection, where you can collect your favorites, a set of kitchen tools like weight converters and baking tin charts, and a ratings feature, so you know what's worth making again. On the downside, iCookbook doesn't convert between cups and metric automatically, and there's no note-taking function.

iCookbook looks like a promising app. It's good at the moment, but needs a few improvements to be truly great.

Download iCookbook Metro App 0.9.0.9 in Softonic

Recipe4win shares the same layout and design as recipe4all - it's very basic and old-fashioned, and at times it is hard to tell what's a recipe and what's an ad.

The program is a very restricted version of the website, and when you consider that the website's not even that great, this way below average app doesn't hold much attraction at all.

Download Recipe4win 1.0 in Softonic

If you've been in this situation, you need a program like Pantry. Pantry is a shopping organizer that not only lets you create and manage detailed shopping lists, but also keeps track of your current stock and synchronizes everything with your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Pantry features a complete database with all sorts of foods, beverages, personal care products and cleansers, but if you miss anything, you can add it to the list straight away. You can create a list with the stores where you usually do your shopping as well.

Each product has a detailed entry with your current stock, the average price, an optional expiration date and the number under which it should be refilled. As soon as you notice you're running out of any product, it will be automatically added to the shopping list – you do need to mark the product as 'running low' though, or let the program know that your current stock is under the refilling limit.

Pantry is automatically synced with a free online account in the Pantry website, and also with an iPhone app, which is sadly not free.

Pantry helps you manage the shopping at home with a handy organizer that can be synced with an online account and a paid iPhone app.

Download Pantry 1.2.0 in Softonic

Recipe software, as I have mentioned before, is often at the bottom of the attractive software scale. Recipe Center, however, isn't all that bad, and apart from the unpleasant pink background color, is actually quite pleasant to use. It comes with a selection of recipes already imported, and adding, modifying and removing recipes is easy.

Recipe Center also has Basket and Shopping functions, the former for collecting various recipes in one place - useful when planning a meal, for example, and the latter for creating custom grocery lists for when you hit the store. It's easy to add recipes and ingredients to the features - Basket is on the bottom-left of the interface and Shopping on the bottom-left.

Slowing Recipe Center down is the fact that it has limited export formats (just Meal Master) and the Advanced Recipe Encoder - a tool meant to make importing recipes easier - didn't work well. Unfortunately, I also found it impossible to import recipes from the Recipe Center website, despite following instructions to the letter.

Importing and exporting recipes with Recipe Center was problematic, but the rest was plain sailing.

Download Recipe Center 6.0 in Softonic

With ChickenPing you can create a personal database with all your favorite recipes and conveniently organize them according to categories. The program also includes a special area where you can list the food you currently have in your fridge, and search the recipe database according to the ingredients you can use.

Each recipe in ChickenPing features a complete page with name, description, number of servings, ingredients, directions and even a tab for photos. And if you find you're missing an ingredient for a specific recipe, jot it down in the built-in shopping list utility and you won't forget it next time you go shopping.

ChickenPing is easy to use and has a nicely designed interface. Too bad it doesn't include any recipes – you have to type everything in - and it seemed to be a bit unstable during our tests, crashing every time we tried to use the Synchronize tool.

ChickenPing is an attractive recipe manager with customizable categories and built-in tools for shopping lists and fridge inventory.

Download ChickenPing 1.95 in Softonic